The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-10-07

was bad enough and desperately wicked
have had fun illimitable, though never
swors one oath, and never gambled for -
much ~ the worth Of pin, and never
saw the inside Of haunt Of sin save -
whom ten years ago, with commissioner q
police and . detective and two elders Of my
church, explored these cities by mid
night, not out Of curiosity, but that lmight
in pulpit discourse set before the people
the poverty and the horrors Of UNDER
ground city life. Yet, though never was
Intoxicated for an instant, and never com
mittsd one oct Of dissolutsness, restrained
only BY the grace Of God, without which
restraint would have gone headlong to
the bottom Of infamy, have had 90 much
fun that don't believe there 10 . man ON
the planet in the present time who has had
more.
Hear II, mon and boys, women and girls,
all the fun il on the side Of right. Sin may
seem attractive, but it is beautiful, and,
like the manchineel, . tree whose dews
arc poisonous. The only genuine
happiness il in An honest Christian
life. The Chippewa, wanting to see God,
blackens his face with charcoal and
fasts till he has . vision of what he
calls God. My God, can see best when I
take my hat OF and let the sunshine blaze
in my face, and after a reasonable break
| fast. He is not God Of blackness and star
walton, but oflight and plentitude, and the
glory of the MONDAY sun is Egyptian
midnight compared to it.
There they go-two brothers. The one
| was converted q year ago in church, one
Sunday morning during prayer, or SER
mon, or hymn. No one knew it at the
time. The persons on either side of him
suspected nothing, but in that young
mans soul this process went on:
''Lord, here l am, o young man amid tho
| temptations Of city life, and am afraid to
| risk them alone; come and be my guar
dian and my help; save me from making
the mistake that some Of my comrades arc
making, and save me now"
And quicker than a fash God rolled
Heaven into his soul. He is just as jolly
as he used to be, is just as brilliant as he
used to be. He can strike a ball or catch
one as easily as before he was converted.
| With gun or fishing-rod in this summer
vacation he was just as skillful as before.
The world is brighter to him than ever.
He appreciates pictures, music, innocent
1 uuoIlVyS oOCI0A AliCS SOOA JOhoSs 6uu Ae0
plenty Of fun. first-class fun, glorious
| fun.
| But his brother is going down hill. In
the morning his head aches from the
champagne debauch. Everybody secs he
is in rapid descent. What cares he for
right or decency, or the honor Of HE
family? Turned out Of employment,
| depleted in health, cast down
in spirits, the typhoid fever strikes him in
the smallest room On the fourth story OF q
| ffth-rate clearinghouse, cursing God
and calling for his mother, and fighting
back demons from his dying pillow, which
| is besweated and torn to rags. Heplunges
out of this world with the shrek of q
destroyed spirit.
Alas for that kind of fun! It is re-
morse. 1t is despair. 1t is blackness Of
darkness. It is woe unending and long
reverberating, and crushing as though all
the mountains of all continents rolled ON
him in ono avalanche. My soul, stand
back from such fun. Young man there is
no fun in shipwrecking your character,
! no fun in disgracing your fathers
name. There is no fun in breaking your
| mothers heart. There is no fun in the
physical pangs Of the dissolute. There is
| no fun in the profigate's death-bed.
There is no fun in an undone eternity.
Paracelsus, out of the ashes of q burnt
rose, said he could recreate the rose, but
he failed in the alchemic undertaking,
and the roseate life once burned down in
sin can never again be made to blossom.
Oh. this plumb line of the everlasting
right! God will throw it over all our lives
to show US our moral reflections.
God will throw it over all churches
| to show whether they are doing useful
work or are attending instances of idle
ness and preterse. He will throw that
plumb line over all nations to demonstrate
| whether their laws are just or cruel. their
rulers good or bad, their ambitions holy
or infamous. He threw that plumb line
over the Spanish monarchy of other days,
and what became of her? Ask the splint-
| cred hulks of her overthrown armada
| He threw that plumb line over French
| imperialism, and what was the result?
| Ask the ruins Of tine Tuileries, and the
fallen column of the Place Vendome, and
| the grave trenches Of Sedan, and the blood
| of revolutions at different times rolling
through the Champs Elysees. He threw
that plumb line over ancient Rome,
and what became of the realm
Of the Caesars? Ask her war eagles,
with beaks dulled and wings broken, flung
helpless into the Tiber. He threw it over
the Assyrian Empire Of thousand years,
tho thrones Of Semiramus and Sardana-
palus and Shalmaneser, Of twenty-seven
victorious expeditions, the cities of Pho.
nicia kneeling to the scepter, and all the
| world blanched in the presence. What
became Of all the grandeur: Ask the
fallen palaces Of Khorsabad and the
corpses of 1S5, 900 soldiery slain by the an.
gel of the Lord in one night, and the As
syrian sculptures Of the worlds museums,
all that now remains Of that splendor be-
fore which nations staggered and
crouched.
God is now throwing that plumb-line
over this American Republic, and it is q
solemn time with this Nation, and whether
we keep his Sabbaths or dishonor them,
| whether righteousness or iniquity domi-
nate, whether we are Christians or infidel,
whether we fulfill our mission or refuse it,
whether we are for God or against him we'll
decide whether we shall as nation go on
in higher and higher career or go down
in the same grave where Babylon and
Nineveh and Thebes and Assyria ara
sepulchred.
"But," say you, s'if there be nothing
but plumb line, what can any of us dol
for there is an old proverb which truth
fully declares: III the best mans faults
were written ON his forehead it would
make him pull his hat over his eyes,
What shall we do when, according to
Isaiah, God shall lay judgment to the
king and righteousness to the plummet:'
ALL here is whore the gospel comes in
| with Saviour's righteousness to make up
for our deficits. And while I see hanging
on the wall plumb line, I see also hang
\ ing there q cross. And while the one